CETA 2020: Our first 2 emojis (of hundreds)

CETA 2020: Our first 2 emojis (of hundreds)
Created January 6, 2020

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Questions for our conversation with Jim Ziliak on Jan 30

Please read Intro to Place-Based Policies and either Tax Increment Financing: A Primer or Fixing America's Forgotten Places, and post a paragraph-long question based on these readings by noon on Wednesday.
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8 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 28, 2019 at 3:47 PM

    So I read the intro and the Tax increments financing articles. I was wondering what are some places that are funded by this here in Lexington? And how often is this used in big cities compared to smaller ones?

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 30, 2019 at 7:39 AM

    In the article "Fixing Americas Forgotten Places" it talks about how placing opportunity zones in these places that are not thriving but could thrive is good because “'When you build low-income housing in a really tough neighborhood, it improves the quality of the neighborhood, it helps you reduce crime, and it improves other people’s property values.'" However, we have talked about in this class how that is not always a good thing for people that have always lived there who will no longer be able to afford the cost of living if property values were to go up. How do you grapple with these questions of improving an area but still making it affordable for the people that have always lived there? Another question this article prompted was about how we could be able to target the poorer areas, the one that is not part of the "in-between" the article referenced? These areas aren't ones that seem to be of interest to investors so how can we help them close the gap if it seems no one is interested?

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  3. Marissa PriceJanuary 30, 2019 at 8:58 AM

    The article, "Fixing America's Forgotten Places" notes that "roughly half of men ages 25 to 54 in Flint, Michigan, are not working, versus just 5 percent in Alexandria, Virginia. 'America’s social problems, including non-employment, disability, opioid-related
    deaths and rising mortality, are concentrated in America’s eastern heartland, states
    from Mississippi to Michigan, generally east of the Mississippi and not on the
    Atlantic coast.'" Since Kentucky is in this geographical range, I wonder how the stats look for Lexington and my hometown

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  4. AnonymousJanuary 30, 2019 at 10:12 AM

    From what I got from "Fixing America's Forgotten Places," it seems that the premise behind Opportunity Zones is a "one-size-fits-all" public policy. As the author notes, however, this is not necessarily true for each community in need. What kinds of more specialized policies would benefit these areas? Why isn't there a "one-size-fits-all" policy? I recognize that each place has different needs, but I don't think I understand what steps could be taken to help resolve those needs.

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  5. Kremena TodorovaFebruary 19, 2019 at 12:11 AM

    The authors of the Introductory chapter mention “rising income inequality” and then detail some of the practical outcomes of this phenomenon, e.g. decreased mobility. My question is whether economists can predict the extent to which income inequality will expand and what they believe is better for the health of a society: an ever-widening income gap or a society where the income inequality shrinks? Rising income inequality is believed (by some) to herald the end of capitalism. Do economists endorse this seemingly extreme view?

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  6. AnonymousFebruary 19, 2019 at 5:26 AM

    I read “Fixing America’s Forgotten Places”. In that article, it mentions how the “distressed communities” need better jobs. Are they genuinely worried about the community being better for the people? Or do they only want the benefits to go towards their bigger project? Is it about the people that need it or are they just using them?

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  7. AnonymousFebruary 19, 2019 at 12:33 PM

    In the Fixing America's Forgotten Places article, Flint is shown as an example of a forgotten place. Flint received media attention at the beginning of the water crisis, but was eventually hushed. How do we keep media attention on forgotten areas?

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  8. EmilyFebruary 19, 2019 at 2:48 PM

    I read the Tax Increment Financing article. It sounds pretty high risk-high reward type thing, and some of the increased tax revenues seem promising. But what safeguards are in place to ensure valuable resources are going to the right projects and not disadvantaging already vulnerable areas and populations? (other than the "but-for" analysis and such)

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